Daylight Saving Time And Other Timing Tips for Your Press Releases

by Rebecca Rose, Business Wire Editor, Atlanta

If you’re sending a press release in the next couple of days, please factor Daylight Saving Time into your plans.

Rebecca Rose, Editor, BW/Atlanta

Daylight Saving Time was first enacted in the U.S. in 1918 and in classic “spring forward” fashion, it begins Sunday, March 13, this year. Clocks will jump forward an hour at 2 a.m. local time in most areas. The time shift will also occur in other parts of North America, including Mexico and most of Canada. The European Union (EU) won’t change their clocks until the last Sunday in March.

Exceptions to Daylight Saving Time include the entire state of Arizona, northwest Indiana and the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. We recommend verifying the local time in your targeted distribution area. And, if you’re at all unsure about the correct time zone, contact your local newsroom – we’re always here to help!

The most common goof we see on news releases during time change season is communicators failing to note event timing announcements in the current timing scenario. For example, a press conference taking place at 8 o’clock in the morning in New York City will be noted as starting at 8 AM EST versus 8 AM EDT. Our editors are on the look out for such errors.

When writing and scheduling your press release, be sure to consider the time zone of your desired geographic circuit. If you’re located in Atlanta, but are targeting media points in California, sending your release out at 8 a.m. ET (5 a.m. PT) probably isn’t going to get you the most bang for your buck.

Templates are frequently used when crafting press releases, so be sure to double-check that time zone abbreviations are updated and correct.

A simple, albeit effective, strategy for boosting pickup is to release your news slightly past the hour. For example, rather than scheduling your release to cross the wire at 8 a.m., try scheduling it for 8:01 a.m. or 8:06 a.m. This will set your news apart from the rush of releases scheduled to go out on-the-hour.

With 32 bureaus around the world and more newsrooms than all of our competitors combined, Business Wire is proud to provide local expertise and superior service, backed by the most accurate editors in the world. In Editor’s Corner, we ask some of our best to chime in on how to get the most out of your press release, based on their years of experience in the industry.